


Kiss The Void

by Resa_Saso



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Team TARDIS
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2018-12-26 01:17:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12048309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Resa_Saso/pseuds/Resa_Saso
Summary: The Doctor tries it all to escape his inevitable death. But on his journey he doesn't only meet Jack, but alsodifferent versions of Rose and it makes him realize, he can't continue running.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Kiss The Void](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/321948) by PrincessOfTheDaleks. 



> A few things I want to point out before it starts! First, this is one of my oldest fanfics that finally gets translated. Forget writing in German, I really want to do this English thing!  
> Also.... I wrote this before I knew Clara. I'm... saying that for a reason. And I remember that it was really, really creepy for me back then.  
> Oh, and this takes place after Journey's End and before The Waters of Mars & The End of Time. The Doctor is traveling alone and running from his death.

The Doctor sat on a rock, wind blowing cool and biting, letting his long coat quiver around him restless.

The sun was already setting and its dark, red glow mirrored on the calm water of the ocean nearby.

Hard to believe there was a battle going to take place.

A cruel battle led by good people.

It was the planet Rhea. Once a little planet full with love and kindness. The Doctor had always loved to come here. But when the TARDIS had brought him here this time, there were no warnings, no reasons, no explanations.

Just war and blood and death, wherever the Time Lord dared to look at.

He just wanted to leave, return to his TARDIS and turn his back on this place forever. He despised war and even more he despised what it made him do.

But he needed to understand, find out what could turn such a peaceful planet into a living hell.

From what The Doctor had heard he deduced that the Capital Lucios had split up into two fronts.  
Some Rheaners didn't even know what was going on themselves.  
Some Rheaners were brought into the battle by their families, into a war they had nothing to do with.  
Some Rheaners were left behind and now they had to fight their own people.  
But one thing was clear - Most Rheaners didn't even know what they fought for.  
They didn't know what all those brave warriors in the first rows – warriors that weren't even warriors – lost their lives for.

The Doctor had been waiting for several hours. As soon as the sun would set, it would continue. This beautiful city, completely built of glass by Rheaner’s own hands would be demolished and utterly destroyed. Towers would fall, homes would crack, that sparkle caused by the sun shining on the reflecting glass, it would die forever.

Gradually, The Doctor realised why their battles were fought only at nights.  
The Rheaners didn't want to see it, the downfall of the most beautiful city in their solar system. Didn't want to watch their own families falling in dust and broken glass.

With a sigh the Doctor climbed down the rock, threw one last look to the peaceful scenery of a setting sun and stepped down to the Rheaners who were just about to choose their weapons for the battle.

Whoever was already equipped stood with the crowd and waited to be ordered into their positions. Some of them, the most adventurous, would be sent up the highest towers, to defend and die the hardest ways.

The Doctor could barely watch.  
All of their weapons were improvised. Everything the citizens of Lucios could find in their homes, some guns, thick branches and marbles.  
Even children got equipped.  
There weren't any tanks, no defence, nothing that could protect them from attacks.

And The Doctor knew it wasn't different on the other side.

‘This is madness...,’ he murmured while shaking his head. Hastily he sped up to confront the Rheaners. ‘Pure madness.’

He stood right in front of the officer now, in midst of the crowd of people who had once lived happily together.

‘Listen to me!’ he shouted as loud as his voice let him.

But they just glared at him darkly and quickly returned to their preparations. They thought they were ready but The Doctor knew, this was the kind of war you always face unprepared.

And he had to prevent it at any cost.

 

‘Where is he now?’ Jack asked with worry in his voice.  
The green creatures all around him considered him with distrust.

‘You know that man?’ one of them finally asked.  
He seemed to be one of the leaders, wearing a uniform that looked like it had seen better days.

Jack let a crooked smile appear.

‘Let's say, he knows me. Is he alright?’

Worryingly he looked over to the masses of people that built up across from them. More and more Rheaners came marching from the other side of the town, seemingly determined to attack.  
All Jack wanted was to find The Doctor and make sure he was alright.

‘He's on the other side,’ a woman threw in from behind.  
She had green skin as well, but also long, blonde hair that fell on her shoulders in soft waves. Her red eyes glared at him with a kind of defiant pride.

‘Oh,’ said Jack, putting on his brightest smile. ‘I'm Captain Jack Harkness by the way. And who are you?’

‘Stop it!’  
A shout got carried to them and Jack winced at the familiar sound.

‘He can't be serious,’ he muttered and stretched his head to find The Doctor.

He stood not far away from him, in front of the enemy front, back to Jack and shouted for attention.

Jack couldn't hear what he said now but it wasn't hard to picture his words, so he shrugged and turned to 'his' fraction.

In front of him he caught sight of a little girl. Her skin wasn't green, her hair blonde and tousled, her brown doe eyes were widened in fear and despair.

Jack let his eyes wander, before he bent down to her.

‘Hey you,’ he started with what he hoped was a soothing voice. ‘Who do you belong to?’

‘Nowhere,’ she replied saddened. ‘You here to stop the war?’

Jack hesitated, but he could hear the Doctor shouting behind him and felt encouraged.  
‘That's what I'm here for,’ he assured her, not mentioning he only got to Rhea on coincidence. He rose and raised his voice:

‘These people over there, they're your families!’ he shouted as loud as he could, hoping they'd also hear him in the last rows. ‘Your friends. People you spent your whole lives with. In peace.’

He waited but nobody answered. Suddenly, all there was, was tense silence.

‘What do you fight for? How long is this war going? Do any of you remember what really counts? Because no matter who I asked today, no one could tell me anything. And now here is a little girl without a family, crying because she's scared.’

‘We can't stop now!’ the man in uniform called out.

‘What do you know, anyway!’ another one shouted from behind. ‘Marching into our world and talking like you know anything!’

‘That's exactly my point!’ Jack replied forceful. ‘Do any of you?’

‘It... it was about Claudya,’ an uncertain voice threw in.  
It was an old woman who had spoken, at least Jack assumed she was by her grey hair and slightly darker skin tone. Wrinkles shimmered in the red light of the setting sun.

‘Claudya?’ he asked and a tense silence fell over the crowd. ‘Who is Claudya?’

‘Rudolpho's wife,’ a man replied from second row, equipped sparsely with a thin branch. ‘Rudolphos loved her. But she got exiled because she was different. Her skin was pale, like yours and she had beautiful, blue eyes.’

‘And that was a problem?’ Jack asked quietly, wondering if The Doctor was hearing the same story on the other side right now.

‘Others are always welcome,’ the old woman said. ‘We like to have guests in Lucios. But we don't accept them for pairings,’ she added saddened.

‘So the city got divided,’ another man continued. ‘One half supported Rudolphos and Claudya.. - That's us. The other... was against the pairing. That's how this war started.’

‘And Rudolphos and Claudya?’ Jack insisted. ‘Where are they now?’

Embarrassed silence fell over the citizens of Lucios. Nobody seemed to want to answer him. Finally Jack turned to the woman who spoke first.

‘Where are they?’ he repeated.

‘Gone,’ she finally answered after a few moments of hesitance. ‘Gone, to another planet, because they couldn't stand the war.’

For a long while, nobody spoke a word. There was complete silence for a few minutes while these warriors realised what they should've seen ages ago. Then the man in the uniform repeated his words from before and suddenly they seemed to have a complete new meaning.

‘We can't stop now.’

‘Why not?’ Jack wanted to know coldly. ‘You have to see this war is pointless.’

‘If we stop now, we're dead,’ the officer retorted calmly. ‘The other side will keep on fighting.’

But Jack just grinned brightly.  
‘Wouldn't be too sure,’ he replied happily. ‘Because right now, over there is the best speaker I've ever met and speaks.’

‘Who is this man that came here in his blue box? He seemed to come out of nothing.’

Jack smiled.

‘Yeah, that sounds just like him.’  
It was then the immortal realised that everyone was staring at him. He had more attention now than he had when he was trying to talk them out of dying.

‘His name is The Doctor,’ he added.

There was a whispering at his words, which seemed to shake the whole crowd.

‘The Doctor?’ the young, blonde woman finally asked.

‘Well...,’ Jack uttered, confused by their reaction. ‘I guess that's not his real name... but...’

In this moment, the little girl who had stood in the front row, alone and without any family, moved.  
Perplexed Jack looked after her while she stepped towards the crowd that stood in front of The Doctor and listened, without any fear.

‘What is she doing?’ the man in uniform asked with worry and followed the girl, whose blond hair danced in the wind, while she sped her steps up.

One after one all the Rheaners moved now, went after the little girl who stepped up so fearless to a crowd of armed warriors.

Jack hurried behind them.  


All eyes were pinned on the little girl now.  
The Doctor, completely puzzled by this sudden loss of attention turned around quickly and caught sight of the enemy soldiers.  
For a moment he thought they would attack, using the advantage of an unprepared opposite. Then he saw the girl, progressing the whole crowd.

He also noticed how some of the people he just talked to raised their guns and pointed them at the child.

And he noticed Jack.

In a flash he jumped down the box he had stood on, moved in front of the girl and spread his arms in protection.  
‘She's just a child!’ he shouted at the crowd. ‘Just a child!’

But she didn't seem to be scared, not even a bit, not anymore. She stared up to The Doctor with open, hopeful brown eyes. With a little smile the Time Lord tousled her hair and the little one giggled cheerfully.

The sound of it seemed to lift the tension.  
Some men sighed in relief, some last, sceptical soldiers finally put down their guns.

‘Are you The Doctor?’ the child wanted to know innocently and the Time Lord nodded while cowering down to her.  
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I am The Doctor.’

He barely noticed the sudden whispering and muttering around them. He only looked at the girl, who grinned happily up to him.

‘So you came to save us!’ she called out joyful. ‘Like you saved all the others!’

Stunned, The Doctor stared at her.

‘Jack?’ he asked flatly, without turning away his glance. ‘What did you tell them?’

‘Just your name,’ the immortal replied.

He had stepped closer, originally to surprise his old friend, but he really was more disappointed than surprised.

‘You really are The Doctor?’ a quiet voice whispered from behind them.  
It came from somewhere out of the armed crowd but The Doctor heard it anyway.

‘Yes,’ he replied determined and rose again, looking at them all, dead serious. ‘I am The Doctor and I am the Last of the Time Lords. I have seen my own people fall, lost my own family to war. And I'm here to...’ - He glanced at the little girl with a short, loving smile – ‘...To save you. Save you from your own fate.’

Jack, who had stepped next to him, leaned over and whispered something into his ear:  
‘The TARDIS brought you here completely unintentionally, didn't she?’

‘Shut up,’ The Doctor whispered back moody and Jack turned away with a grin.

‘Thought so.’ Louder, he added: ‘Claudya and Rudolphos are gone. A war is never right but a war without any reason? Any motive? How will you justify it, how will you be able to look into a mirror ever again, how will you look into the eyes of those whose families you killed in a pointless battle?’

The man in uniform now stepped up the free box next to Jack and spoke to the citizens of Lucios.

‘This war has already lasted long enough. We fought so hard and fierce, we even forgot our reasons. Love. We fought for love and now love shall end this battle.’

‘Well said,’ Jack muttered into his ear and the officer smiled at him contently. ‘I'm Captain Jack Harkness, by the way and...’  
‘Oh come on, just stop it,’ The Doctor whispered to his right and Jack fell silent instantly, grinning.

Hell, he had missed this.

The rest settled itself.  
Both sides finally buried the hatchet.  
They ended a war. Without blood, tears and fear.

All thanks to a little girl, brave enough to step over an invisible line.

And of course...

‘The Doctor, Healer of the Universe!’ some people called out and surrounded the Time Lord cheerfully. ‘We heard stories of you, so many stories but never could we be certain... Never was there hope! That's how these old stories call you.... Healer of the Universe, Healer of Planets.’

‘Oh, but I'm just a traveller,’ The Doctor insisted. ‘I help here and there, but actually I just... just want to see the universe.’

‘Then be our guest!’ the officer invited. ‘Be guest of a united Rhea! Both of you,’ he added towards Jack.

‘We'd love to,’ The Doctor agreed with a smile and they followed the excited Rheaners through their glass capitol.

‘Don't think they believed you,’ Jack muttered amused and The Doctor sighed laughing.

Everywhere you could see them whispering and chatting now, happiness and relief could be seen on all their green faces.  
It seemed the peace was truly restored.

And a little hand pushed into The Doctor's.

‘Hey little one,’ the Doctor smirked affectionately and looked into her warm doe eyes. ‘Looks like you ended a war.’

‘But that was you!’ the girl giggled and the Doctor shook his head smiling. ‘No, you did that all on your own,’ he replied warmly. Then he got more serious. ‘Tell me, where's your family? You mom, huh?’

‘Far away.’  
Suddenly the girl sounded very sad and deadly serious.

Too old for her age, Jack thought.

The Doctor's face was moved with pity. ‘What's your name, Sweetie?’

‘My name is Rose.’

The Doctor and Jack exchanged some confused glances.

‘Nah,’ the Time Lord finally managed to call out. ‘Can't be!’

‘I am the Bad Wolf.’

Instantly The Doctor's head jerked back to the girl. She now stared at him, her eyes wide like in a kind of trance, her voice had become monotonous.

‘What?’ The Doctor shouted out completely stunned.

‘I create myself.’

The Time Lord stared at the girl as if her eyes were about to fall out of her head.  
‘What?’ he repeated.

‘I take the words. I scatter them.... in time and space.’

And with these words the little girl's eyes turned inside her head and she sunk to the ground, lifeless.  
‘What?!?‘

 


	2. I'm losing power...

Instantly, worried voices aroused from the crowds and some Rheaners fought their way through to them.   
  
‘What happened?’ some of them called and stretched their short necks to gain a better view on the child. ‘Who attacked the girl?’  
  
‘No one did!’ the Doctor gave back hastily, to appease the crowd. ‘No one attacked anyone!’  
  
‘It was Jever from the other side!’ somebody suddenly shouted.   
  
‘What?’ the Doctor expelled, still completely perplexed by what had happened right in front of him. Only after a few seconds he realized, what was going on.   
‘No!’ And with a frown he added, ‘There is no _other side_ anymore, do you remember? And nobody touched this girl.’  
  
But a Rheaner close to the Doctor shoved him out of the way infuriated and rushed over to the little Rose.  
  
‘Is she dead?’ he asked so loud everyone could hear him. ‘Is she dead?’  
  
‘She is _not_ dead!’ Jack called out, but it was already too late.   
  
The Rheaner’s palpable tension turned into outgrown fury. All at once they started storming off towards the three, trying to get to the child. Some thrust with their pitchforks towards a nervous looking, chubby Rheaner, who was slowly backing down, and the Doctor realized this had to be Jever.   
  
‘Stop this right now!’ the Time Lord shouted loudly above all the excited shouts around them. ‘Don’t start a new war, before you’ve even buried the old one! Nobody touched this child!’  
  
But it was useless. Jever’s friends had started to insult his enemies, more and more improvised guns found their way back into the Rheaner’s hands and the first strikes were being made.  
  
‘This can’t be happening!’ the Doctor called incredulously.  
  
Jack sighed. ‘You can get people out of war, but never the war out of people.’  
  
‘Those aren’t people!’ the Doctor snapped back. ‘They’re Rheaners! The most peaceful race I’ve ever met!’  
  
Behind them the first Rheaner fell to the ground, moaning in pain, green blood dripping out of an open wound.  
  
‘You haven’t met many peaceful races then, have you?’ Jack remarked dryly.  
  
Without paying any attention to his immortal friend, the Doctor rolled his eyes and bowed down to the girl. He checked for her pulse and laid a hand on her forehead, as if to feel for a fever. As if her cryptic words were to explain away with a simple flu.  
  
However, when he got nudged by two fighting Rheaners and nearly lost his balance, the Doctor finally had enough.   
  
‘Here’s an unconscious girl!’ he screamed at them. ‘You can still beat up each other _after_ you brought her somewhere safe and checked up on her!’  
  
‘He’s right!’ The officer, who had tried to gain people’s attention for several minutes, had now fought his way to the Doctor’s side and tried to calm down the crowd. ‘Take care of the child!’  
  
Some of the Rheaner’s actually seemed to regain their right minds. They bowed down to the girl and an attentive looking, older Lady took her into her arms to carry her to the sickbay.  
  
The Doctor and Jack followed her with a relieved sigh to the end of the street, where a big tent had been put up in the shards of a dying city.  
Some men rushed in to call a nurse called Miruel. She hurried towards them, black stripes of stress showing on her green skin and her red nurse gear was drained in sweat.   
‘The last bed on the left, it’s free, lay her down!’ she shouted to them and hurried back into the tent, leading the way.   
  
The Doctor and Jack exchanged short looks, then followed.  
  
A little assembly had gathered up around the little Rose’s bed. Amongst them stood the wrongfully accused Jever, not being attacked anymore, the Rheaner who had carried Rose, the officer, Miruel, the Doctor and Jack.   
  
‘She’s going to be alright,’ the nurse stated while swabbing the sweating forehead gently with a sheet. ‘Just a little faint. The whole battling must’ve been too much for her.’  
  
The Doctor looked down on the girl in thoughtful silence. Her blond hair fell ruffled up into the young face, her chest rose and fell heavily.  
  
It was the first time he had any time to think straight about what had just happened and his thoughts raced.  
  
Was this Rose? His Rose? As a child? But that couldn’t be. She was human, born on Earth, raised on Earth. Anything other than that, he would know about it, wouldn’t he?  
And the whole Bad Wolf thing? That had happened so much later. She couldn’t possibly know any of this yet. So what was going on here?  
  
Jack seemed to think the same thing. ‘Where does that girl come from?’ he asked the Rheaner who had carried her. ‘How did she get here, she clearly doesn’t come from this planet?’  
  
‘She’s been living here for months,’ the woman replied in a warm tone and stroked one strand of hair out of the girl’s face with an affectionate look. ‘Nobody knows where she came from. She’s none of ours, she’s white. But everyone on our side took care of her as if she was our daughter.’  
  
‘So, what now?’ Jack wanted to know and threw an insecure look towards the Doctor. ‘Shouldn’t we bring her back?’  
  
‘Back?’ the Doctor asked tonelessly, still regarding the girl.   
  
‘To Earth,’ Jack replied. ‘Where she belongs.’  
  
The Time Lord wanted to answer but was interrupted by a childish moan beneath him. The girl’s eyelids fluttered for a few seconds, until they finally looked into her hazel brown eyes.   
  
‘Welcome back,’ the Doctor smiled down at her. ‘Are you alright? How are you feeling?’  
  
‘Dizzy,’ the girl brought out and tried to sit up, but sacked instantly back into her pillows, powerless. ‘What happened? The war is over, yes?’  
  
‘Can’t you remember?’ Jack asked frowning. He stared at the Doctor in confusion, but the Time Lord ignored him.   
  
‘What’s your name?’ he asked the girl.   
  
‘Layla,’ she answered, whispering. ‘Why?’  
  
‘Just curious,’ the Doctor gave back light-heartedly. ‘You better sleep now, Layla. It was a long day for you, you brave little thing.’   
  
‘Okay!’ The girl beamed back at him, before snuggling peacefully into her pillows and closing her eyes in relief. The Doctor looked at jack with intent and both of them excused themselves to step out of the tent and stand far off of the waiting crowd.  
  
‘What the hell is going on here?’ Jack wanted to know as soon as he was sure they were out of hearing range. ‘She said she was Rose and the Bad Wolf and all that… And now she’s suddenly someone else?’  
  
‘I don’t know,’ the Time Lord replied calmly, burying his hand in his hair thoughtfully. ‘Something weird is going on, but I can’t tell you, what.’  
  
‘So… what should we do? Leaving her here? She’s human, for sure!’  
  
‘She… Rose… She would’ve told me, if she’d grown up on another planet,’ the Doctor gave back with sudden insecurity. ‘It can’t be… it can’t be her, Jack.’  
  
‘Doctor,’ his friend sighed. ‘What if she, just this once, didn’t tell you everything? I mean, you heard the girl, you heard what she said!’  
  
‘Things, she couldn’t have known yet, even if she was Rose,’ the Doctor retorted thoughtfully. ‘It can’t be, Jack, it’s just not possible.’  
  
The immortal snorted. ‘The Doctor, clueless. Never thought I’d see the day.’  
  
‘Nah!’ he gave back with a slight grin, obviously more optimistic now. ‘Clueless? Me? Never!’  
  
‘So, what should we do?’ Jack repeated his original question.   
  
‘Talking to Rose!’  
  
The Doctor smiled when he saw Jack’s confused face.  
  
‘Wait,’ the Immortal finally replied with a frown. ‘Which Rose do you want to talk to? The little one or…’  
  
‘No,’ the Doctor sighed. ‘Wouldn’t make any sense, I doubt she decided to suddenly lie to us and call herself Layla while she was passed out.’  
  
‘So, you think whatever happened to her… Is gone now? As if she was possessed by Rose?’  
  
‘Any other ideas?’  
  
Jack sighed. ‘So, to Earth? To Rose?’  
  
‘Yes,’ the Doctor gave back. ‘And you, hold yourself back, will you? Where we’re going, she won’t know us yet and that’s dangerous enough as it is.’  
  
‘Why not traveling back to a Rose who knows us?’ Jack wanted to know confused. The Doctor waved him to follow and lead the Immortal through the waiting crowd back into the shattered city of glass.   
  
‘Doctor?’ Jack pressed on, after slowly realizing, he wouldn’t receive an answer. The Doctor pinched his lips shut in irritation. ‘She found you again, right? She returned, I was there.’  
  
‘Yes, I…’ The Doctor faltered for a second when they came to a halt in front of his TARDIS. With lowered head, he gently stroke the blue coloured, wooden door. The sun was slowly rising again.  
  
He had ended a war, but he didn’t feel even a little bit better than he did at the beginning of his travels.  
  
He drew in a breath before he continued. ‘I brought her back there.’  
  
‘What?’ Jack asked in disbelief. ‘Why?’  
  
‘It doesn’t matter now,’ the Doctor hissed. ‘Come on in.’  
  
He opened the TARDIS door and pushed it open just wide enough for Jack to enter after him.  
  
Without turning around to the immortal, he stepped to the controls and started his TARDIS. A jerk shook the floor and Jack had trouble staying on his feet, so he clang to the railing next to the door.  
  
He threw a short, wide grin up to the TARDIS ceiling.   
Damn, he had missed this.  
  
Returning to serious one second after, Jack followed the Doctor to the controls with a lost look on his face. His old Time Lord friend was seriously acting weird, all harsh and moody and he knew, it had something to do with Rose. It usually had.   
  
‘But I don’t understand,’ he finally pressed on. He just couldn’t let it go, not now. ‘You wanted her to stay with you, didn’t you?’  
  
‘I didn’t have a choice,’ the Doctor finally replied with a little sigh. ‘My meta crisis destroyed a whole race. Genocide. Me. I couldn’t leave him in the same universe with me and I couldn’t leave him alone.’  
  
‘You’re not serious!’ Jack retorted incredulously. ‘You dropped her with your clone in a parallel universe?’  
  
‘What are you doing here, anyway?’ the Doctor suddenly wanted to know, absolutely ignoring the immortal’s reproachful question. ‘Are you following me everywhere now?’  
  
‘I was just… you know… traveling through,’ he replied, suddenly feeling cornered. ‘I… my… my boyfriend, well, kinda boyfriend, well, actually he was my boyfriend… he died, Doctor.’  
  
‘You don’t say,’ the Doctor replied coolly. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’  
  
‘Okay, okay, I got it!’ Jack lifted both hands, surrendering. ‘No uncomfortable Rose talk from now on.’  
  
The Doctor had just turned back to his TARDIS controls, when he heard Jack mumbling behind him.  
  
‘You’ve got to be traveling alone for quite a while, when you’re being this moody.’  
  
There was a sad smile on the Doctor’s face. Jack had seen it several times but he still hated it all the same.   
  
‘Even a Time Lord can’t run away from his destiny forever,’ he replied. ‘Sooner or later my time will catch up on me.’  
  
And he stepped past a very confused Jack to his TARDIS doors. ‘Coming? Out there good old Earth is waiting for us!’


	3. And I don't know why...

The Doctor stepped out of his TARDIS, expecting to see a shabby corner of London. But he surely didn’t expect the view in front of his eyes.  
  
Jack followed him outside and let his gaze roam around their surroundings.  
  
“Good old Earth, hm?” he remarked dryly.  
  
All around them, there was nothing to see but jungle. Wherever they looked, there were trees, the most exotic plants and flowers, dangerous and beautiful all at once.  
There was absolutely no jungle climate though, it was chillingly cold and rain clattered in streams down on them. The Doctor tightened his coat around himself freezing, while looking around curiously.  
  
There didn’t seem to be any kind of civilisation, no life around them except for some extraordinary, colourful birds, roaming through the air. Was Jack mistaken or did this yellow one actually have a propeller on its back?  
  
“I don’t know what’s wrong with her, lately,” the Doctor finally broke his shocked silence. “She just never brings me to where I want to go.”  
  
Jack needed a few seconds until he realised the Time Lord was talking about his TARDIS.   
  
“Where the hell are we, Doctor?” he wondered and held back every mocking comment that came to his mind.   
  
“Ehm,” the Time Lord expelled. “Well. London, circa 235 million years ago?”  
  
In exactly this moment, one of the huge birds passed them. It was almost twice as big as Jack’s own head and there was _unmistakably_ a propeller on its back!  
  
“Err… Is this some kind of unexplored dinosaur?” Jack remarked.  
  
Both men exchanged glances and the desperation in each other’s eyes let them burst out into loud laughter.   
  
“Okay, okay,” the Doctor spluttered after a while, when he was reasonably calm again. “I think, this might be the planet Tripura. Or Trivola. Something with a T! Trijia?”  
  
Jack, who had stepped back into the TARDIS behind them, shouted, “It says Charon on the screen!” back at him.   
  
“CHARON!” the Doctor exclaimed loudly, as if the name had been on the tip of his tongue all this time and hit himself on the forehead with the palm of his hand. “Of course!”  
  
“So, what is this planet?” Jack asked while stepping outside again. Instantly, he grimaced and wrapped himself tighter into his own coat again. “It’s freezing out here.”  
  
“Jack?” the Doctor asked while watching a particularly huge blue bird buzzing through the air.   
  
“Yes, Doctor?”   
  
“I’ve got no idea where we are.”  
  
“Yes, I know, Doctor,” Jack sighed softly.   
  
“But these birds are brilliant, don’t you think?”  Fascinated the Doctor stumbled a few steps deeper into the jungle. “Never seen those before.”  
  
“Doctor?” Jack asked unsure and hurried to follow the Time Lord. “Shouldn’t we go back to Earth and look for Rose?”  
  
“Yes, of course,” the Doctor replied absent minded while bowing down to an exceptional beautiful flower, studying her closely. “Loot at that, isn’t it beautiful?” he beamed.  
  
Jack couldn’t help but agree, but still looked behind his back with slight suspicion. A persistent tingling sensation at the back of his neck gave him the feeling of being constantly under surveillance.   
  
“Come on, let’s look around a bit!” the Doctor called and jumped back on his feet, excited like a little boy. “So much to see, so little time! And I just love new planets!”  
  
Jack had intended to follow him, when he heard a loud buzzing noise behind him, sounding like the whirling of rotor blades. He needed a few instances to remember the birds on this planet had actual propellers on their back, then swiftly turned around just in time to dodge the thrusting, huge beak, heading towards him.  
  
The gigantic, green bird let out a loud, frustrated shriek, then whirred down for another attack on Jack. Reflexively, the Doctor grabbed his arm and pushed him aside. With a quick exchange of glances they communicated without any words and began running away from the huge creature.  
  
The ground underneath them creaked with every step and Jack realised it was frozen. His rushed breath came out in little clouds, and even though the hunt should warm him up, he seemed to get colder with every step.   
  
“Damn,” he hissed, when he felt a rip on his arm and a burning pain, which for some moments dazed his senses. The huge bird’s beak had caught him and left a bloody, gaping wound.   
  
“Down here!” the Doctor shouted, brawled through a thorny bush and slithered hastily down a frozen slope.  
  
Jack hurried after him and ripped open his arms on the thorns, right before one of the branches, the Doctor had held aside for him, slapped him in his face.  
  
Soon, he slid down the way down the icy slope head first, right past the Doctor. The frozen earth left bruises on his skin and the pain in his arm burned even worse than before.  
Finally, when he had reached the end of his journey down, having landed ungently on a bed of fallen leaves and moss, the ground underneath his back started to crumble and finally crashed. Jack ended up laying in a cold, damp hole.  
  
Gracefully, the Doctor stopped his slithering right at the hole’s rim and after making sure the bird had lost interest with the loss of his prey, he bent down to look after Jack.  
“You’re alright down there?” he called and even though he took efforts, he simply couldn’t help the slightly amused tone in his voice.   
  
“Fantastic”, the muffled answer came from underneath and with a supressed laugh, the Doctor found a vine to slowly descend into the hole, too.  
  
Meanwhile, Jack had risen again, he was stretching his joints with a painfully contorted expression on his face. His wounds were already beginning to heal.   
  
“There’s a passage,” the Doctor noticed and frowned thoughtfully. Eyes still locked on the entrance, he grabbed his sonic screwdriver from his suit pocket and lighted their way a bit.   
  
“Great,” Jack muttered sullenly. “Deeper into this horror planet.”  
  
The Doctor grinned at him playfully. “Oh, I don’t know, I quite like it here,” he admitted and led the way with raised screwdriver.  
  
Jack just grunted and demonstratively rubbed his healed arm.  
  
For a while, they followed the dark corridor. The light of the screwdriver was the only one illuminating their way and more than once Jack almost stumbled upon a rock or edge he hadn’t seen.  
  
“Shouldn’t we go back?” he asked after a while. “Back to the TARDIS? We weren’t even supposed to go here, remember?”  
  
“If I’d always turn back whenever I ended up on a planet I didn’t want to visit, I’d never met you,” the Doctor remarked shortly and went on.   
  
“So you explore every planet she mistakenly brings you to?”  
  
The Doctor grinned and turned to Jack while walking. “She never brings me where I want to go, but always to where I need to go.”  
  
They entered an extensive cave. Confused, the Doctor let his screwdriver sink and glanced at the high ceiling above them. There wasn’t a rift to see and yet the cave was illuminated by sparse light.  
  
Jack found the mysterious source of light behind a long, upright rock, and while his mind still tried to realise what he was seeing, his body already stiffened in shock.  
  
“Doctor…?” he called, without taking his gaze away. “I think, you should see that.”  
  
Hastily, the Time Lord stepped to his friend and Jack could almost see the thoughts racing inside his head.  
  
“But… that can’t be,” the Doctor expelled and took some hesitant steps towards the glowing.  
  
That girl in front of them was unmistakably Rose.  
  
Not the little girl they had met on Rhea, but his Rose.  The Rose, who had left him. The Rose, who was supposed to be living with a perfect copy of him in a parallel world, happily ever after. The Rose, who shouldn’t lay pale in front of him on the rocky, frozen ground, mouth gaping, eyes wide open.  
  
“Rose…?” he asked quietly, noticing how hoarse his voice sounded. “Rose, can you hear me?”  
  
He stooped down to the girl and gently stroked a strand of hair out of her face.   
  
“Rose?”  
  
With a dark, sinking feeling, the Doctor laid one finger on her neck, feeling her pulse. There was nothing. No heartbeat, no movement, no calming pounding, telling him his friend was still alive.   
  
“Doctor…”  
  
“She can’t be dead.”  
  
“But…”  
  
“No buts!” the Doctor gave back unexpectedly brisk. “Just look at her, her whole body is glowing like a light bulb. Something happened to her. And the little girl we met is part of it. That’s why the TARDIS has brought us here.”  
  
“Alright,” Jack replied and something like actual hope resonated in his voice.  
  
The Doctor, with all of his power, hoped they weren’t lying to themselves.   
  
“Come on, let’s get her out of here. Into the TARDIS.”  
  
“What?” Jack retorted incredulously. “How the hell do you intend to get her out of this hole?”  
  
“Okay, okay,” the Doctor admitted, while rubbing his forehead, seemingly fighting a slight headache. “Wait here, then. Stay with her. I’ll get the TARDIS here.”  
  
Jack looked after the Time Lord, while he disappeared into the dark passage.   
  
Something was wrong with him, something other than Rose. He wasn’t himself, his mood and behaviour changed like lightening from the Doctor he knew and loved to a man, who was only a shadow of himself. One moment he was joking around and mocking him, the next he was erratic, irritated and confused. Something was obviously bothering him and whatever had the ability to bother the Doctor, scared Jack half to death.  



End file.
